On the radio show "Søndag kveld med Pia Skevik" they played «I Don’t Wanna See You with Her».

Maria said that she has no need to discuss the content that her lyrics reveal because she’s very, very subjective when she makes art. There is a difference between Maria Mena the artist and the person Maria.

She says that the new single is a piece of art and that the piece of art will live a lot longer than the relationship that inspired her to create the song.

Maria picks three songs:

Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know. Maria says this song gave her a physical reaction the first time she heard it when she was 14. It inspired her to become tougher and more honest in her songwriting. She praises Morissette for not using a lot of metaphors.

Counting Crows - Colourblind. This song influenced her taste in music.

Fiona Apple - Parting Gift. Fiona is one of her heroines.

Maria wrote her first song at the age of 9. She actively started writing songs at the age of 11, because she wanted to enter a Hanson-contest. In 2004 she warmed up for Hanson in the USA.

The songs she writes come to her when they come, it’s harder when she forces them. She writes poetry. Many of the song titles come from poems she has written.

The best part of the process is when she has enough songs to write the songs that the record is missing and can focus on writing those songs which are missing.

Skevik asks if she’s scared that she has already written her best song.

The singles often come first for her, Maria says. She says she wrote the newest single a year and six months ago (I have re-listened to this part, that is what she says).

Maria played "I Don't Wanna See You with Her" acoustic with Tommy Kristiansen playing the guitar (It's a short version it seems), on NRKP3's radio show P3morgen (P3morning). The video clip is here: tv.nrk.no/serie/p3morgen-paa-t…10815/23-11-2015#t=27m31s. Not sure if it is possible to watch it in other countries or not.

The music award ceremony called P3 Gull aired live last night. Maria had taped some sentences about music, shown alongside other well known people's opinions about what music means to most people. Maria said: «music is life - it’s the soundtrack of our lives. Music is a joy and a comfort for us and reminds us of the soundtrack of our lives.»

ETA: Maria also has done an interview with a radio show called «Kveldsåpent». I have to listen to it but for anyone who wants to listen to it themselves, it's available here: radio.nrk.no/serie/kveldsaapent/DMPA03023715/27-11-2015#. The interview starts at where the tag/description says "Fredagsgjest Maria Mena om uken så langt". I'm in the process of listening to this interview. She says that usually when she releases a new album it takes a while before she writes something new, but yesterday she wrote two new songs [at the time of the interview, probably Thursday 26th and speaking of the day before, as she was at NRK then]. She needed to express herself, write about how it is to release this new record. She says it's really lovely to feel that she needs to write about her feelings despite the fact that people might not listen to her songs. She says her songs sometimes change meaning after some time because life goes on and things change. She also says that she's aware of the fact that her songs will go on to live their own life when they're released. She mentions "Home for Christmas" as a song that now has a life of its own, given how many people who listen to it during the Christmas season. She talks about her relationship with her cell phone. She says she needs her cell phone to record her songs and also that she's having a little trouble figuring out how to sync the recordings between her phone and her MacBook.

The host of the radio show "Christine" on NRKP3 tweeted that Maria will cover a song by Sam Smith on the broadcast of "Christine" today (twitter.com/ChristineDancke/status/671228163318521856). My first thought was that it must be pre-recorded. Anyway, I hope it'll be a nice performance. This radio program will air from 1PM (13:03) to 3PM (15:00) and if anyone's interested in listening - you can do so by clicking at the P3 logo-image at radio.nrk.no. The broadcast will be available in the radio archive later on.

Also, this morning 3FM played a live recording of "I Don't Wanna See You with Her" from the Songbird festival this weekend (Source: twitter.com/3FMNow/status/671244380204892160). That's a great outcome of a spontaneous acoustic set!

A comment on this Instagram picture (instagram.com/p/-tH_xuxeFB/?tagged=mariamena) says Maria will be singing on the show that Loven & co. hosts tomorrow morning (the show is called Morgenklubben and is on Radio Norge, here's a link: radionorge.com/morgenklubben). The show begins at 05:59, according to information on the website. I think all of these radio performances are pre-recorded.

I think the cover will be uploaded to Youtube by P3 (there are a lot of other cover versions that other artists have done here: youtube.com/user/nrkp3/videos

ETA: The radio show information says:
I dag får vi besøk av Maria Mena som gir deg "I don't wanna see you with her" og sin versjon av Sam Smiths "Stay With Me". (Translation: Today Maria Mena will visit us and play "I Don't Wanna See You with Her" and her version of Sam Smith's "Stay with Me".)

ETA2:

Maria Mena on the radio show Christine (P3, 30.11.2015)

Maria thinks it’s incredible that she’s achieved as much as she has.

The songwriting includes really getting to know your feelings and at times she just wanted to feel good and not going through the motions of understanding how everything hurt (talking about the year she experienced last year when she wasn’t writing, referencing her interview on «Skavlan»).

What is Maria’s best advice to people who have become celebrities through reality shows?

She says that there is a risk that you’ll be bullied after having been voted off the show that you were featured on. Maria says it’s the music you make that you’re going to sell.

Maria as a teenager. The host has made a small quiz, where clips of songs are being played and she has to say which artist plays the song.

Maria says she’s now text messaging with Sam Smith. The host asks when they’re going to meet. Maria says, maybe in two years, he’s so busy and he’s the one who’s got to initiate their meeting.

In the cover of «Stay with Me» she sings some lines from «Just Hold Me» (she sang the verse "Poor little misunderstood baby / No one likes a sad face / But I can't remember life without you / I think I did have good days / I think I did have good days" in between there, switching up the original "him" with "you").

She talks about all the phases you go through when you break up with someone. She says that someone tweeted yesterday that one of her recent radio interviews reminded them of Morten Harket (Norwegian artist), so this is definitely pre-recorded. (That tweet was published November 18th, it’s here: twitter.com/birgotfa/status/666967521036210176.)

That's a good suggestion, Sunnychili. My personal opinion is that there might be some connection between the lyrics as well - even if the similarity is not intended. Asking someone stay and asking someone to hold you, well, those things can be related.

The Norwegian music website Gaffa.no recommends Maria's new album as one you have to listen to in December, together with 10 other albums: gaffa.no/nyhet/101722. They write that she has built her career over time and is now one of Norway's biggest solo artists, and that her Christmas song "Home for Christmas" might be hard to compete with in December, so we'll have to see how the album competes with this single (this single has re-entered the Norwegian single charts every year since its release in 2010).

The Norwegian newspaper VG has published their review of Growing Pains: vg.no/rampelys/musikk/musikkan…growing-pains/a/23572067/
This reviewer thinks that the track "You Deserve Better" (track #10) is the best one on this record. The reviewer describes the album as filled with gospel-like tunes that she sings to herself. Furthermore, the reviewer states that Maria is dedicated to the topic(s) that she's singing about. The dice is thrown and the album is rated as 4 out of 6.